The news Monday that SpaceX would bring 300 jobs to South Texas to build the world’s first private commercial rocket launch facility is not a case of California losing jobs to the Lone Star State, said a spokesman for Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, the Torrance, Calif., Democrat who authored a recent tax break for SpaceX.

Aerospace companies must locate launch sites in states like Florida and Texas due to the geographic area that rockets end up in orbit, said Eric Guerra, chief of staff to Muratsuchi. Guerra said he learned of commercial space flight needs on a recent tour of Lockheed Martin.

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In April, California Gov. Jerry Brownsigned Muratsuchi’s Assembly Bill 777, which provides SpaceX with a 10-year property tax break on rocket equipment that leaves the planet. Muratsuchi ran the bill in part out of concern that SpaceX would move its rocket manufacturing to Texas, because the company owns land there.

“As government is slowly pulling out of [space exploration], it’s an area for private industry, and we want California private industry to capture that market,” Guerra said.

SpaceX employs close to 4,000 people in California and expects growth of about 20 percent this year, according to information provided to Muratsuchi’s office.

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